Tell Congress to Stand Up to Bush on Children’s Health

by Payson Schwin, Sep 24, 2007

At a recent news conference, President Bush accused supporters of an expanded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) of trying to “score political points.”

The fight over children’s health isn’t about chalking up political points. It’s about making sure millions of children have access to secure, quality health care.

The U.S. House will vote next week on legislation to expand SCHIP to cover 10 million children—4 million of whom are now uninsured. We need a strong bipartisan show of support for the bill to demonstrate to Bush just how isolated he is on this issue.

Click here to tell Congress to stick up for kids, not Bush.

And tell President Bush to sign the bill here.

The bill’s opponents argue the current program should merely be extended. And Bush has claimed the SCHIP bill contains “excessive spending,” even as he’s requested $200 billion more for the war in Iraq.

But because of a big increase in uninsured children in the United States, a simple extension of SCHIP would mean more children than ever would go without doctor visits and medications. With nearly 9 million uninsured children in this country now, we should be doing more to reach them, not less.

It’s time Bush’s allies stood up to him.

As Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) said of a “yes” vote on SCHIP:

It shows that, if [members of Congress] feel strongly about something, they are willing to stand up to the president and tell him.

LaHood is onto something—the American people want Congress to defy Bush. In a recent poll, 64 percent of voters disagreed with the president’s decision to veto SCHIP expansion.

They must know something Bush doesn’t—the SCHIP program works.

Thanks to the program, the number of uninsured children of low-income families has dropped by nearly one-third in a decade. But those gains are in peril as the number of uninsured children jumped to 8.7 million in 2006—an increase of 1 million in just two years.

Children need SCHIP more than ever before.

Tell your representative today to deny political cover to Bush and, instead, cover 4 million more uninsured children. Click here to send Congress a message.

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